How to Write Demand Generation Content With an Irresistible Hook

And, our content marketing team yelled in joy when they knew that the story alone bought 10,000 leads in our system.

Look,

Demand generation, today, is majorly about sharing valuable and relevant content with potential buyers (who are at different stages of the buyer’s cycle).

But, everyone knows that. Every business owner has a team of marketers who are focused on developing content for their target audience.

Result?

There are over a million blog posts that are published EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Buyers are overwhelmed and in such a scenario, you need to know how to write demand generation content trends with an irresistible hook – a story that drives quality leads.

You want your buyers to read every line of your post (and, not just skim through) and in this post, we tell you exactly how to write those pieces of demand generation content.

1. Start with a story or end of the story

Did you notice how we started this blog?

It was an end of the story. And, our content marketing team yelled in joy when they knew that the story alone bought 10,000 leads in our system.

Such a beginning instills interest in the readers who want similar results – what story? What was the story about? How did that single story help get so many leads? I want that!

The key to writing an end of the story as the beginning of a post is to be cryptic. Don’t use industry jargons, acronyms, and keep the real deal behind generic words (like the story in this case). You want readers to be curious!

According to the LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community, 57% of what makes demand generation content compelling is storytelling.

You can also start the blog post with a story (or a personal anecdote). For example, Derek Halpern, founder of Social Triggers and Zippy Courses, introduces almost all of his blog posts with a story. Like this one –

A personal anecdote could be

Something that happened to you – This sets you apart as an expert and not someone who repeats what other experts say

Something which triggers an emotional reaction – It could be a joke or a sad instance. If you capture a reader’s interest by sparking an emotional trigger, the chances of them reading through your content increase crazily.

See, storytelling always succeeds in catching attention and remembering the product/service for a longer time.

Human beings are wired to connect with compelling stories and are driven by curiosity. You should take advantage of that while writing any demand generation content!

2. Start with mind-boggling statistics

When we say this, we REALLY mean “mind-boggling”.

Look at this,

Source: Neil Patel

The author, Peep Leeja, has stated a shocking statistics. It is not overly used in the marketing industry, so it comes across as new and interesting finding.

Another way to do this would be to share results from your personal marketing campaign. For example, if you are writing a blog post on how to drive more traffic, you can share how a recent marketing campaign helped you (and, share screenshots to increase credibility)

There is yet another way of using this – Use data, statistics, and research when you are sharing a story. At Stanford University, they found that statistics combined with stories have a retention rate of 65–70%.

That’s crazy!

3. Start with an interesting fact

If you want to use an interesting fact as a hook for your demand generation content, make sure they are either NOT related to the topic at all and if they are, they are SHOCKING.

Julie Neidlinger from CoSchedule gives an amazing example for this, here. She says, starts with something like this

“Niagara Falls has traveled 7 miles upstream in the past 12,000 years. Let’s hope you’re growing your web traffic at a faster rate.”

You are talking about traffic, but the statistics you used were of Niagara Falls. So, you used a comparison to draw attention and that’s super smart way of hooking your readers.

Besides this, you can also use analogies, metaphors, and similes to start the post.

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4. Start with a thought-provoking question (that may also be a pain point)

Let’s say, you are writing about the qualities of a demand generation marketer. Think about what your readers might have a problem with.

For example, they may not be able to hire the best due to budget constraints. You can use something on these lines – Are you looking to hire a demand generation marketer on a tight budget and wondering what you should be looking for?

Starting with questions makes one point clear to the audience – you understand what they are looking for and they WILL find an answer to their pain points in the content.

That said, do not fall into the trap of asking obvious and rhetoric questions. For example, are you looking to hire a demand generation marketer? Or Are you looking to be productive?

One last tip to make sure you have a brilliant hook to your demand generation content ideas is to write the introduction at the end. This way, you do not have to mold everything to fit the introduction. Instead, you work on an introduction that suits the rest of the content.

There you go.

If you use these 4 ways to hook your customers, you will definitely see a difference in the content ROI.

So, what type of hook do you use to attract your readers? We would love to hear from you.

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Author Vikas Bhatt

Vikas is the co-founder of OnlyB2B ITES Pvt Ltd and a Demand Generation cum Data Cleansing Expert. He has 10+ years of experience in B2B Lead Generation, Data Mining, and Content Syndication.
Say hi on vikas.bhatt@only-b2b.com

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Only-B2B.com is a B2B demand generation powerhouse headquartered in San Francisco with operating centers in India. We help companies who are in constant search for business leads to make their marketing campaign a success. With us, you will experience a great blend of creativity and professionalism along with passion for what we do.

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How to Get Better at B2B Lead Generation
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